Place the Blame
by Anae-chan
Summary: Who do you choose to believe in? A mass-murderer, a traitor? Ruler of your world, who you've never even seen? Or yourself?  Story takes place after volume 11, focusing on shikigamis.
1. Prologue

_Authors__: Anae and Pagatour  
__Beta__: Azrax (Thank you, dear. We can never repay.)  
__Fandom__: Yami no Matsuei/Descendants of Darkness (manga)  
__Characters__: Every single shikigami there is. And some shinigamies as well.  
__Pairing__: You'll figure it out soon enough. ;)  
__Rating__: overall T(/R)  
__Spoilers__: If you don't know anything about Touda's past, in some chapters, there will be. Otherwise... Just assumptions.  
__Disclaimer__: We own neither the fandom, it belongs to Yoko Matsushita, neither the song, Sonata Arctica's "The Power of One".  
__Summary__: __Who do you choose to believe in? A mass-murderer, a traitor? Ruler of your world, who you've never even seen? Or yourself?  
Story takes place after volume 11, focusing on shikigamis.  
__A/N (Anae)__: The largest fic project of so far, is this. This fiction is actually finished already, but under translation. As soon as a chapter is translated, it gets here.  
__We spent a lot of time planning and writing this, and I at least lost my heart to one or two characters. In short, I'd be delighted if you would read this and drop a comment whether you see the love there. (Or how you like the story overall. Or just drop by and just say, hi, I'm reading this. That alone means the world to me.)  
__Anyway, hope you enjoy this! (We did, and still do. It's not over yet ~)  
__A/N (Pargatour)__: The largest (and my only) fanfiction project has begun. It has been most satisfying to write this and most of all PLAN everything with a "slight" pinch of humour xD  
__I became attached with the project quickly, but I sure admit it was fun to play god and make the characters to whatever we wanted One could even feel pity sooner or later for them, but we were like "oooh this is going to be soooo wonderful scene!"...talking about weird point of views.  
__The good part about writing this was above all the characters, because during the writing they became our friends when we got to know them more. Now it is time for checking the story and translating it, and after that our creation is ready to face the world all alone! I feel sad already. ;(  
__Ps.__ Rewievs are pure love._

_**Prologue**_

_No one was born to be a slave  
__Seek the past and place the blame  
__Tell me colour of the rain  
__No one was born to be a master_

_Serpent versus serpent._

_Fire versus fire._

_A fight that's supposed to be over in a flash. One of the twelve shikigamis should easily defeat several other shikigamis at a time. But this time, it wasn't so simple. This opponent wasn't one of the twelve yet defeating it was difficult._

_Why? That was the first question to rise to serpent's mind as the opponent cut deep wound to his black, scaly side. For the first time in ages, once badly beaten body complied the pain and involuntary hiss escaped from the shikigami._

_Once upon a time this opponent would've been piece of cake, but that was before the imprisonment, before the forced wearing of the cursed visor…_

_Another hit from the opponent._

_No, now wasn't time to dwell in the past. Why should one cling onto it anyway? No-one has believed him back then, and no-one would believe him today. Now he should take care of this snake for good. So that no-one would notice. Then it would stay between him and the dead opponent._

_No-one would know. No-one would care, anyway._

_Bright red blood poured._

_It wasn't only one serpent's blood, it was both of theirs._

_Blood streamed down and the attacks didn't suffice since neither was willing to lose._

_The battle did not end before the ground was covered in blood._


	2. Chapter 1

_A/N(Anae): Chapter one. I was supposed to post this ages ago, but got carried away. This one's pretty short, sorry!  
__And for now, let's just think that Hisoka got home safely after the whole Kurikara-accident with Tsuzuki and Tenku's brothers are alive. We'll get to it later.  
__Hope you enjoy!_

_**1.**_

Slight, gentle breeze blew around the Tenku palace as a few leaves danced in the air before mean wind forced them to move forward. Some people were spending their time on the palace grounds; a few adults and a little girl of which everyone was a shikigami, a god.

The little girl and a man, dressed mainly in white, were tossing a ball to each other. The man with a warm grin was Guardian of West, Byakko. His hair matched his clothing; white hair was long and boyishly spiky except for the long, straight ponytail on back of his neck. Byakko's skin was pale and he had big, deep red eyes. Man's clothing wasn't all white; there was black too and that colour-combination was the same as his long, furry tail which seemed to move on its own behind the wind god. When Byakko got the ball to his hands, he started bouncing casually up and down.

The girl was giggling a few feet away. She was a water shikigami, named Tenko, and she happened to be youngest of the twelve most powerful shikigami living nearby the palace. Her long hair was tied as decorative knot on the back her little head. The hair was deep blue just like her shining eyes. She was wearing a decorated Chinese stylish, according to human beliefs, dress that was made of the finest silk.

Byakko threw the ball forward, accelerating its speed with a little push of wind. That was a piece of cake for him, being able to control the winds. But the girl skillfully caught the ball and threw it straight to Byakko's face and hit him since the wind god's attention happened to be elsewhere.

Young man's striped tail slumped to the ground and it seemed like his whole appearance slumped with the appendix as the ball hit wind god's forehead. Laughter was to be heard some steps away. This filled the little girl with enthusiasm since another of the two was his big brother Kijin and the other was their father, Soryuu.

Both had dark blue straight hair and eyes of the same kind, although the son's eyes seemed empty without pupils unlike his father's.

Kijin's laughter filled the air better than Soryuu's; he was more relaxed than his serious and responsible father. Youngster wore a special hat, he probably had hidden most of his hair under it but one could never be sure since he was never seen without the hat. He was wearing long hemmed clothing, the hem being embroidered with a stunning landscape. Kijin was friendly and obedient by nature but beneath the surface there was a blazing temper. That was somehow ironic since the boy was a thundershikigami, able to control thunder and lightning.

Soryuu, the father of Kijin and Tenko, was grave serious and very proud shikigami who watched his beloved daughter's romping with fumbling Byakko with warm eyes, filled with joy. The man was a water dragon and more or less a leader of the Imaginary World's 12 most powerful shikigamis. At the moment, unlike usually, his hair was floating unconcernedly from man's broad shoulders towards the ground. Shikigami's clothing was also straight lined and long, nearly reaching the ground.

Considering the surroundings, his unusually designed black cloth was hanging on his shoulder as the man himself was leaning on a cherry three, hands crossed on his chest.

By nature, Soryuu was not only responsible but also sadly well-known paranoid towards almost everything, especially new acquaintances.

Once again, Byakko picked the ball, clearly fake-irritated look on his face and continued playing with Tenko.

They were standing on the border of woods behind the great, huge palace. To the right of the palace, there were some smaller buildings such as prayer rooms and some warehouses. Another side opened wide scenery to the beautiful meadows and through that to the mountains surrounding the woods. There was to be heard some heavy steps behind one small prayer temples, but Byakko seemed to be the only one to notice. The wind shikigami turned his gaze to see one of the 12 to walk shakily towards more secluded place just around the corner of the huge palace. That man was fireshikigami Touda who literally controlled the hottest fire and the most destructive flames of hell.

Touda usually wore black tight clothes with ragged hem, boots of the same colour and there were straps on his legs and arms. He didn't seem easily approachable, having a protection pad made of bone on his shoulder and wearing dangerous gloves that bore resemblance to claws. His unapproachable appearance wasn't helped by visor covering his digits. It made almost impossible to see his eyes. Touda's black hair was cut short but that was for a reason;

Hair was the source of spiritual power when it came to dragons and therefore from the length of the hair, one could quite properly guess how powerful the dragon was. Then again, Touda wasn't a dragon but a serpent, but the rule applied to him as well.

Once upon a time, the fire serpent had had long hair but that was before he was freed from the cell located deep in Tenku-palace. The man who freed him had been Asato Tsuzuki, a shinigami, Guardian of Death. This human, his master, was the only one who Touda obeyed, just like the other 11 most powerful shikigamis.

Touda was a lone wolf and he really didn't have any friends but Tsuzuki. He wasn't liked by other shikigamis, least of all by Suzaku, beautiful Guardian of South who deeply loved Tsuzuki.

Fire serpent limped and held his right side as pain ached his wounds. Byakko noticed the red blood stream between the white claws. Now that you looked closely, man's clothing was more ragged than usual and just a small wince of pain crossed his face. Byakko was quick to smile to the others and threw the ball to Kijin.

"Play with Tenko, will you? I'm of to… to… eat apples!" Byakko called out to Kijin after a moment's thinking. The phrase was answered by a stunned look as Soryuu also turned his attention to younger god.

"Go ahead, Byakko, but there are no apple trees nearby!" Soryuu mockingly answered after the wind shikigami who obviously was interested in what had happened to Touda and who had managed to hurt the strong shikigami so. As the mock went unnoticed, Soryuu snorted boringly until he felt a light tug on his jacket. The blue gaze went down to his young, confused daughter. "Dad, where is he going? There are no apple trees here."

"Who knows but he should learn to lie a little better if he intends to do so", oldest shikigami mumbled with a deep voice before hinting Tenko to go back to play.

Byakko leaped with a few long steps behind the corner and looked around to see where Touda had ran off to. He noticed the injured man sitting next to one especially big rock, supposingly looking into emptiness behind that visor of his. Should've Touda walked further, Byakko would've found him anyhow; the blood drops on the grass were easy lead follow. White tiger took a deep breath, gathering mental courage for a while to dare and talk to serious man. After all, the tiger was kind, even if fumbling individual.

Even if Touda was always alone, that didn't stop air controlling tiger from worrying. He would've done the same for anyone. Touda was a comrade just like Kijin, Suzaku and every other of the 12 shikigamis, he just wasn't so liked. Byakko took another breath before stepping forward, towards the injured dragon, but when he was just few steps away, Touda surprised him by talking. "What do you want?" the serpent asked without turning his gaze to other.

"Um… You know… I was just wondering where you got so serious injuries", Byakko quickly answered, drawing circles to the ground with his leg. The atmosphere was uneasy; neither man was used to this.

Touda snorted tiredly and finally looked Byakko coldly in the eye as younger man kneeled next to him, brows furrowed. From this one angle, Byakko could see Touda's eyes behind the visor. There he saw unhidden hurt.

"What does that have to do with you?" the serpent asked quietly. There was a certain bitterness in his tone and many would've taken that for indifferent. But not Byakko.

"I just thought to help you to bandage them if needed", Byakko quickly answered before even realising himself what he was saying.

Touda eyed the other shikigami with strangely surprised looked on his face. "Why do you even care?"


End file.
